A chronological exploration of literary or film milestones in geek culture from 1964 on. Excuse the ADHD as I discuss other things as well.

Month: February 2016

I know I’m guilty of doing this in the past with other movies, but we’ve got calm down with the judgement of a movie that hasn’t come out yet. Like the titular characters of the film, fans (and haters) have taken up arms on whether or not Batman v. Superman will please moviegoers and whether or not it will be able to support an ongoing franchise. In fact people are saying some outrageously strong remarks about this film that they have not seen.

It is really easy, sometimes, to get caught up in mob mentality and brutalize a person we know nothing about, or to road rage and say whatever we feel like from protection of our home, but we need to remind ourselves that we are not privy to what is going on behind the scenes.

The fact is, unless you are part of a select few, or have psychic abilities, you don’t know yet what is going to happen in the film, how solid the acting is, what the director is aiming for, or the emotional reaction other viewers will have of the film. Neither does having read a ton of comics or seeing other films in the genre mean anything. We shouldn’t even judge it on Man of Steel. In fact, having watched other films should tell us to expect the unexpected. It could go in a million directions.

For example, in public opinion

Spider-Man by Sam Raimi, the sequel were arguably better, the 3rd was much worse. All from the same director.

The same goes for X men, but with a different director for part 3

Nolan’s Batman was a roller coaster, Dark knight Rises is when the roller coaster is slowing down, yeah it seems disappointing, but don’t forget you’re at a freaking amusement park.

Iron Man was great, the same director did not meet our expectations with 2 (in popular opinion, not in mine),

Avengers 2 did not live up to the sequel, but appeared as though it could have without studio interference.

Star Wars was heavily controlled by the studio, and a Star Wars writing group, and was great.

Abrams gave us exactly what we wanted for Star Wars and we ate it up, while he gave us something completely different and new for Star Trek… And we completely ate it up.

And finally, knowing what The Amazing Spider-Man was like helped us enjoy the Amazing Spider-Man more than we probably should have.

There is no mold.

Zack Snyder is laying down new ground with Batman v. Superman, and we need to wait until we get a chance to walk on it before we judge. We also need to remember that this is a piece of art for him.

Is he in it for the pay check? Yes. Are you in your job for the pay check? You might say, “No, I do it because it is what I love to do” and that is great, but ultimately, the pay check helps you to live and is a necessity. But if it was only about money, you would not be doing what you are doing, and neither would he. He is making this movie for the fans, for the studio and for himself. So don’t go shitting on it. This is his career. He is not trying to piss people off, this is his story, give him, and the other people who worked on it, the chance to tell it. He has been picked specifically for this project, so have faith.

It is time that people who think a movie is going to be good go see the movie, and those who do not, don’t go. I think that buying a ticket for the sake of giving yourself some ammo for the online bashing of the creators is unhelpful, counterproductive, and frankly, against what most of these characters are all about.

So I challenge you. If you did not enjoy Man of Steel, and don’t think BvS will be any good, take your family out to dinner on March 25th, maybe play a game, and stay away from BvS fan sites . If the movie doesn’t look good but you love superheroes, save your judgement, buy a ticket, then critique it fairly, and if you can’t wait to see it, awesome, but understand that not everyone will agree with you.

Until we see it, it is both the greatest movie in the world and the worst, Schödingers Batman v. Superman, if you will, so we should save action until we know.

This turned into more of a rant than I wanted it too. Thanks for reading anyways.

Countdown for blastoff… X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one… Fire! From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you’ll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents… X Minus One.

Both of my recent posts – X-files and I, Robot, have their ties to a show that I love, The Outer Limits. The thought about Science Fiction evolution has encouraged me to take a couple steps further back this weekend, past The Outer Limits, to X Minus One, a staple from the golden age of radio.

X Minus One, like its not as well known predecessor Dimension X, was a Sci Fi anthology program featuring a mix of both original stories as well as adaptations of popular tales (typically from partnering magazine Galaxy Science Fiction) from the popular writers of the day, men who became legends in the genre, like Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Ray Bradbury. Adaptations and original stories were written by Ernest Kinoy or George Lefferts.

According to the Internet, 93% of the world’s population is currently watching the nee X-Files miniseries. Approximately. The other 7%… nobody cares about. I can’t be part of that 7%, so for the past couple of weeks I’ve been doing what I can to jump ship. Something I never thought possible. Getting into The X-Files.
It’s not that I thought it would be bad. Quite the opposite actually. I knew it would be good. It’s about aliens and abductions, and had good enough writing to gain a large following, how can it be bad. But with it’s 9 seasons, spin off show, 3 movies and now miniseries, it is quite the undertaking. And until now, it hasn’t been to culturally relevant. It’s also a very 90’s show. A show I was too young for. That’s what I told myself until a 20 year old told me to watch it. Then I had no excuse. So last week I started season one.